Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Stoney Breyer" <stoneyb AT touchwood.net>]

-----Original Message-----
No speech could possibly distinguish short and long vowels consistently
over millennia. Short/ long difference is more characteristic of
chanting.


Well, English has been remarkably consistent in maintaining quantitative
distinctions over about a millennium and a quarter, despite radical
changes in quality. And quantity has never been a significant component
of English prosody.

Stoney Breyer
Writer/Touchwood, Inc.